equipment makers. Apart from a seasonal hiatus between those main
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crops around the middle of July, business has always been good. In 1981 Carter made what was, in some ways his company's biggest step, by doubling his fleet to two vehicles.
The firm's location in Norfolk helped in the early days. "Being near Kings Lynn at that time was good. It was quite a thriving little port, with steel and timber coming in and going to the Midlands, so you could always get a load. But gradually things changed, it's been spoilt for the owner-driver now Hauliers are much more professional now. Customers are looking for a top grade service and you don't see ramshackle units."
Carter likes to forge long-term relationships with his own drivers and, in return, they go the extra mile to help him. This is needed, he says, because the main reason why good quality drivers are hard to come by is all too obvious. "Drivers can earn just as much money in a factory and know what time they'll be home at night. We have to pay them more because they deserve it."
The companies involved in the industry have changed too, he says. This is the deciding factor in not contemplating expansion beyond his existing nine veh ides in the near future. "You need to be a small, specialist family firm or someone running TOO trucks." To get the benefit of expansion he would have to add markedly to his fleet, he believes—a view that is reinforced by look
ing at the disposals being made by firms that are experiencing hard times. "The people having sales are the ones running 25 to 30 vehicles, that's too many to run on seasonal work."
Alarm bells have started
ringing about the economy as a whole, though. "It's been several years since I've had people phoning to ask for cheaper haulage, but over the last month we've seen people querying costs again," Carter says. Pressure in the farming and engineering sectors has prompted the questions—that and the fact some competitors are able to take Li.25 per tonne off an L8 per tonne job. "Somebody's really got their costs wrong. Computers are marvellous things," he adds dryly.
Sensible attitude
But Carter is an optimist. "If you present yourself right and do a good job, even if you lose one customer another one sees what you are doing and gets in touch. If someone leaves us for a cheaper rate, we still keep communicating with them. We get on well with one or two old customers we haven't worked with for six years, who we'd work for tomorrow if they wanted." In a business where your word, more often than not, is your bond, this is a sensible attitude. Carter doesn't forget customers who saw him right at the start of his career and remains grateful.
He has also been able to develop an alter native revenue stream via his storage facilities. The company moved to its current site six years ago and has a weighbridge there plus MOTU to store 7,000 tonnes ofbulk potatoes. "Haulage leads to warehousing and vice versa, like a pub and pub food," he explains.
It is not just lengthy relationships with drivers that Carter depends on. He met his wife Louise 28 years ago at a local dance, and the couple have just celebrated a quarter of a century of marriage, living and working together. "Louise does all the admin side," Carter says. "We moan, but we make a good living." The couple are keen fans of motor racing and try to go to one foreign Grand Prix each year. They are visiting Austria this year They have two sons, who are in their early zos, neither of whom has been pushed into the family firm. If they do not decide to take up the business MI-time, a sale could be on the cards some way down the line. But Carter is not considering retirement just yet. He says: "A customer told me: 'When you moved to the present site, you went from being a man with a couple of lorries to being a business.— It is a distinction which will remain for a number of years to come.